At long last I can post about our night at The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo…

Dad loves bagpipes since I can remember he played a 7 single with bagpipe music on it. He always said that before he closes his eyes permanently he want’s to go to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo…

Then in March 2018 he got very sick and was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis. One day out of the blue he asked me if I could choose any place overseas to visit where would I like to go… “I have a list as long as the National road” I told him…

Then I remembered his words and said Scotland. Dad asked me to see when the Military Tattoo is his only demand for our holiday was that it includes the Military Tattoo…. After doing some research I contact Nordic Visitor for a quote and put the plans in motion. Sarah told me that I better book our tickets for tattoo early because it sells out very fast. 24 January 2019 I booked our tickets for The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in August 2019.

Dad was super excited and I could see in the way he walked that he could not get there fast enough… I did take some random photos while walking…

Sunflower

Ampersand

The Magnum

Dad on his way to the Military Tattoo

The Portrait Gallery

Portrait Gallery

Tram tracks

Tram tracks

Louis Vuitton

Oor Wullie Statue

Scott Monument

Oor Wullie Statue

Waverley Station Train tracks

Giant Wheel

The Mound – Black Watch Memorial

Dad was so excited that not even the stairs was to much for him. The closer we got the less dad talked… He was getting a bit emotional…

The views behind the stands was so beautiful I could not just pass. So while dad was visiting the bathroom before heading to our seats I took the opportunity to capture it.

Thank you for joining us on our way to the Military tattoo. I won’t be saying much in my next post. Will mostly be photos of the Tattoo.

Hope everyone had a good nights rest and ready for the day. I did not really sleep much. My brain is working overtime. I worry about COVID 19 interfering with our plans to visit Scotland again form May 2021 till August 2021. If we are not allowed to travel in 2021 then I must postpone it to April 2022 till July 2022. We have to travel in spring and summer because the main purpose of this trip is so that I can capture Puffins. We also would like to see the rest of Scotland that we missed….

Either way if I continue to post only now and then I will never finish in time before our next trip to Scotland even if we leave in 2022. I also still have some places I visited here in South Africa that I need to edit. But I work from first captured to last….

Here I am back again hoping to finish our walk back to our Guest house today. I still need to post about The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo also before we can hit the road and continue with the rest of our Grand Tour of Scotland.

Two Giraffes in front of the Omni Centre

Two Giraffes in front of the Omni Centre

Oor Wullie in front of Omni Centre

The Glasshouse

Oor Wullie in front of The Glasshouse

The Glasshouse

The Glasshouse Clock Tower

My first thought when I saw the Omni Centre and The Glasshouse was “WOW that’s a lot of Windows to keep clean…. How on earth do they do it? The Glasshouse is a beautiful building…

Very busy Leith Street

Cycling Musician on Leith Street

Just look at how busy the streets of Edinburgh is. We don’t even talk about parking that is one big headache… The best mode of transport might just be to Cycle from point A to B. I prefer to rather walk… I love cycling but my balance is not that great and when I see a robot, stop street or even a car I start to panic…. That is why I put my bicycle in my car and drive to a quiet road or a farm stall park there and cycle from there…

Theater Royal Bar

Theater Royal Bar

Theater Royal Bar

Theater Royal Bar

Theater Royal Bar

Theater Royal Bar

Theater Royal Bar

The Theater Royal Bar is situated next to the famous Playhouse Theater on Leith Walk. I just love the decor of this building…. The hanging flower baskets just makes one feel so happy.

Walking on Haddington Place

Pizzeria

Picture Framer

Fox on the ledge….

U Save

Victoria Barbers

Well just around the corner is Ben Cruachan Guest House on MacDonnald Street….

We had about two hours before we had to get ready for our walk back to Edinburgh Castle where The Edinburgh Royal Military tattoo was held…. I went outside and took a few photo’s of the garden before I made us a nice cup of coffee and we talked about the day and how excited we were to go see the Tattoo….

Thank you for joining us on this last stretch back to our Guesthouse. In my next post I will be sharing some photo’s taken on route to the Tattoo and of the Tattoo itself.

Good Morning friends and followers. I hope that your lockdown is also very productive. I must say mine has been so far. I ticked off a few task on my to do list so far.

I am busy reorganizing my kitchen one cupboard at a time. Still a few to go…

Since this weekend I have been organizing my photos of our Grand Tour of Scotland. Putting the photos into folders. This makes it easier for me to do my research on all the places we have visited and also to see 1400 photos in 1 folder for 1 day gets a bit overwhelming, but 150 photo’s is much better… I would like to finish editing before we go on our next Scotland Tour….

I have finished planning our route just need to fine tune it and do some more research on traveling in campervan and Wild Camping in Scotland. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Okay enough of that let’s get back to our walk back to Ben Cruachan Guesthouse…

The Scotsman Hotel

The Balmoral

The Balmoral Clock tower

The Balmoral

The Balmoral Hotel is such a beautiful building. I wonder how it looks inside? In my imagination it would be fit for a King and Queen…. Next time I will arrange to have a peek inside….

“The statue of the Duke of Wellington outside Register House was unveiled in a highly patriotic ceremony on 18 June 1852, the thirty-seventh anniversary of his greatest victory at Waterloo. Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon was regarded as ensuring the freedom not only of Britain but of Europe in general. “

Waterloo Place Home of Rabbies Tours

Waterloo Place Home of Rabbies Tours

Waterloo Place Home of Rabbies Tours

Dad and I encountered multiple meetings with one of Rabbies Tours tour busses while exploring Scotland and some of the islands. Only while editing I realized that I captured one of the buildings they occupied.

Leith Street

Walking down Leith Street

Walking down Leith Street was an experience. They were working on buildings and also the road. The beautiful hanging flower baskets caught my eye…. I just loved it…. But more next time….

Good day everybody. Hope you are all well and are staying safe. Let’s continue our walk…

We crossed the street and walked towards Waverley Station. I turned around just for a quick photo of Cockburn Street. Turning back I captured Scott Monument from a far… The road was very busy and my arms and back were beginning to ache. Carrying your camera in your hand the whole day is starting taking it’s toll….

It does not matter from what side you capture this monument the craftsmanship and detail are extraordinary. I am looking forward to our next visit…. We reached Princess Street not that far from our Guesthouse now….

Good day to all my followers and internet friends. I hope that you are all well and staying safe…. Well let’s continue our walk back to our guesthouse…

Dad and I got thirsty and was looking for a place to sit and relax for a few minutes. All the places on the Royal mile was packed and we came across Kirks a very cozy bar/restaurant next to the stairs of the The News steps. We each had a glass of Coke and a well deserved rest.

The views outside was spectacular. You can see Carlton Hill from here.

We then tackled the The News Steps. It took dad a while till he reached the bottom. He joked about it and said he took it step by step…

We then reached Cockburn Street. I have seen so many photo’s on Instagram of this street that I put it on my list of places of interest…. Looking forward to exploring it some more on our next visit to Edinburgh.

Some of the views of Carton Hill and Beautiful buildings before crossing the street…. The Edinburgh Dungeon is also on our places of interest list for our 2021 Tour of Scotland.

That is all for now. Thank you very much for taking the time to join us and wander the streets of Edinburgh…

On our way back to our Guesthouse we passed the Elephant House. According to our planning we were supposed to have a cup of tea here, but there were not space for a mouse inside…. So instead I took a photo and said to myself next time….

As you can see it was difficult taking photo’s here in Old Town in Edinburgh. August is definitely an ideal time to visit Edinburgh to capture buildings. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed my stay so much that we are planning to visit Edinburgh again in 2021, but this time in May and not for 1 day but at least 3 to 5 days… It all depends how my planning for the rest of our 76 days in Scotland goes… But I would really like to spend more time in this beautiful city…

Above is some photo’s I took of St Giles Cathedral. Would have loved to go inside, but the crowds was just to much and I am not really a fan of crowds of people. So till next time.

Thank you for joining us again wandering through the busy streets of Edinburgh….

Thank you for wandering through the streets of Edinburgh with us. By now I could see that dad were getting very tired and due to the fact that the streets were so busy with thousands of festival goers we decided to rather move the walk up the Royal mile to the day we get back from our Grand Tour of Scotland…

The one thing that really upset me is the fact that the beautiful Cathedrals and Churches are turned into pubs….. I would rather use these beautiful buildings for something positive… Like shelters for abused woman and children, Coffee shops and a place for local artist to sell their goods or even as a workshop where artist mentor other people and share the secrets of their trade…. But a pub that is just not why these buildings was built. Wasn’t it built to be a safe place for people….

I did however chose a route back to our guesthouse where would still tick the boxes of some of the places to see on our list.

While walking down Candlemaker Row towards George IV Bridge we were searching for the Greyfriars Bobby Statue. I have no idea why I was looking for a big statue and walked passed it the first time. My GPS kept saying I must turn around and when I did I saw the statue…. It looked much bigger in the photos I saw on Instagram and the internet.

The story Of Bobby the Skye Terrier who Guarded the grave of his owner John Gray until his own death on 14 January 1872 is heartwarming and even if it is fabricated of a publicity stunt I still believe that mans best friend is loyal to a fault….

After a quick visit to the Ross Fountain we headed to Edinburgh Castle, but Dad was to tired and did not have the strength to go up all the stairs. So we decided to take the long route to the Royal Mile that leads to the Castle.

I still have no idea where we ended up some square with allot of restaurants and pubs…. Next time we are in Edinburgh I would like to go again . If all goes according to plan and this COVID-19 Virus is under control we will visit again in May 2021.

Our next stop was the Greyfriars Kirk yard.

I discovered the Flodden Wall and took some photos of the Edinburgh Castle and surrounding buildings through a gate….

Here are some information I got from Wikipedia in connection to the Flodden Wall.

“On 9 September 1513, the Scots met the English at the Battle of Flodden, and were heavily defeated, with King James killed on the field. An English invasion was widely expected, and in Edinburgh it was resolved to build a new town wall. Construction began the following year, but was not completed until 1560.

The Flodden Wall, was around 1.2 metres thick and up to 7.3 metres high. The Flodden Wall began at the south side of the castle, running south across the west end of the Grassmarket, where the West Port was located, and continued uphill along the Vennel. A watch-tower or bastion survives at this, the south-west extent of the wall. It then ran east, wrapping around Greyfriars Kirkyard, to the Bristo Port and the Potterow Port, both located in the vicinity of the National Museum of Scotland. Continuing east, the wall passed the Kirk o’ Field, where the Old College now stands, and ran along Drummond Street, turning north at the Pleasance to enclose the former Blackfriars Monastery. The Cowgate Port was located at the foot of the Pleasance, and the wall then ran up the line of St Mary’s Street, where it was formed by strengthening existing walls rather than new walling, to the Netherbow Port, which stood across what is now known as the Royal Mile The wall continued north to the Nor Loch, since replaced by Waverley railway station, terminating at the New Port. “

By now dad was really tired and we decided to rather head back to the Guest House so that he can rest up. Because we still had to walk all the way back to Edinburgh Castle to watch the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo that evening.